


Compromise

by nonky



Category: Dexter (TV)
Genre: F/M, Season/Series 05
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-23
Updated: 2019-02-23
Packaged: 2019-11-04 03:09:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17890385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nonky/pseuds/nonky
Summary: Prompt by samueljames on LJ: Dexter/Lumen, she stays with him.





	Compromise

When they met, she was hidden under grey-brown layers of sweaty grime, like a priceless treasure waiting to be discovered. Dexter had thought she was as good as dead, another unfortunate passing through his hands on the way to an unmarked grave. He was relieved when she lived, and even then could not have said why.

Lumen was his candle in the window, guiding him home after his urges were dealt with - cleanly, carefully, with all due discretion and sacred reliance on the evidence needed to allow himself action. She did not go with Dexter anymore, but she loved him. She remembered the need to be the thing out in the dark with claws and dark inclinations. She believed his methods were just in their own way.

Winkingly, Lumen called his nights out by vague phrases from sitcoms; boy's night, bowling, sowing wild oats. She watched the kids and tucked them in with promises to send their father in to say goodnight. She sat up with Harrison in her lap, expertly holding his bottle for him as he dropped off to sleep and she read a novel.

Dexter had never been able to get close to the victims of his collars. He found out names, dug up graves, printed pictures, but could never truly know their stories. Some were gone and some of them survived as walking wounded. They were fearful and angry, helpless but for his intervention. He imagined they might sob in gratitude or sleep peacefully if they could know their abuser was dead. He couldn't tell them without risking his family but he could imagine he was doing good.

Lumen gave him the full view of his work. She had been right about regaining her freedom. Her personal demons died like any other man. They snarled as they did it, but then they left her to be free. He was honoured to have been a part of her release. It was an unutterable gift to have a woman know him and love him anyway.

His boat shoes squeaked on the tiles of the hallway, giving notice for him. Lumen was already on her feet, cradling an ever-growing boy across both arms. She grinned down at her charge and nodded toward Harrison's bedroom. Dexter no longer had to shift from executioner to father in a snap. Lumen got the kids to bed, he made a quick visit to each bedside, and they lapsed into the healing silence of a solid couple.

She didn't think it was odd to be hungry after butchering a human being, and didn't feel any need to hear gruesome details of his work. Dexter could talk about sports and she didn't fault him for his callousness. Lumen didn't mistake his conversation for a way to feel normal.

He had always known she was too good for what they did together, too human to take joy in sectioning up a corpse for garbage bags. Her face was often serious, but her concentration was for her college courses and his children. She had visited work with him and the laboratory fascinated her. It was a way to use what she'd been, outside the dark thrill that no longer possessed her.

There were moments during a kill when Dexter found himself glancing for blue eyes no longer on him - wanting the company in a lonely choice. They were talking marriage so Lumen could adopt the kids. His life as Dexter Morgan, single father, needed her as a helpmate more than his Dark Passenger did. The regret was brief and misguided.

He had loved Rita and would uphold her memory for the children, but he loved Lumen in a way that didn't need to be shut in a lockbox while he followed his calling. If they had continued killing together she might have ended up like his previous partner, or even like his brother. Few people could sustain the standards that kept their killings rational and measured. Lumen had been a temporary monster, like a cursed princess.

He smiled genuinely as she came back, pressing into his arms to greet him. With her, he could still be the monster while living as a man.


End file.
